Idiom
apples and pears
SlangCockney rhyming slang
Meaning
stairs
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I am going up the apples and pears to my bedroom.”
“Be careful when you walk down the apples and pears because they are quite steep.”
“He carefully navigated the creaky apples and pears, hoping to reach the attic without waking the rest of the house.”
Examples
simple
“I am going up the apples and pears to my bedroom.”
contextual
“Be careful when you walk down the apples and pears because they are quite steep.”
complex
“He carefully navigated the creaky apples and pears, hoping to reach the attic without waking the rest of the house.”
Origin
To the Cockney, the phrase "steps and stairs" describes the idea of gradation. Every good costermonger has skill in displaying the front of his stall. The selected samples of fruit and vegetables are expertly graded in "steps and stairs". Apples and pears, when in season, are common on each barrow and, when polished, create an arresting display.
Key words
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